Mary Lynn McPherson, Pharm.D., BCPS,CPE, is Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore. She serves as a consultant pharmacist for both local and national hospice and palliative care programs, and has designed a critical thinking process for appropriate drug use in end of life patients. She serves on the Boards of the Hospice Network of Maryland and the Maryland Pain Initiative. McPherson is also the Chairman of the Board of the American Society of Pain Educators.

Dr. McPherson teaches extensively in the Pharm.D. curriculum on pain management and end of life care, including didactic and experiential content. McPherson also serves as a primary care pharmacist and Director of Pharmacotherapy Services at UniversityCare Waxter in Baltimore. She also developed one of the first and few palliative care pharmacy residencies in the U.S. McPherson is a Fellow in the American Pharmacists Association, American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists and American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. She has received many honors for her work, including the American Pharmacists Association Distinguished Achievement Award in Specialized Practice, the Maryland Pharmacists Association Innovative Practice Award, and the Maryland Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists W. Purdum Lifetime Achievement Award. She has written four books, and many chapters and peer-reviewed articles on pain management, palliative care, and other topics.

Dr. Kathryn A Walker is President of the Maryland Pain Initiative (MPI) and has served on the Board of Directors for MPI for the past five years. As a faculty member at University of Maryland School of Pharmacy she practices as a clinical pharmacist at Union Memorial Hospital on the Palliative Medicine consult team. She is the first pharmacist to develop a collaborative practice agreement for inpatient palliative medicine.

Dr. Walker's passion for alleviating suffering at the end-of-life includes a major focus on pain management. She is very involved in palliative medicine consultation in the intensive care unit and developed the protocol for terminal withdrawal of mechanical ventilation. Dr. Walker frequently consults on complex medical, symptom management and ethics cases in her institution. She was instrumental in developing and expanding the pharmacy based pain consult team at Union Memorial Hospital. Dr. Walker participates in many educational efforts to increase awareness of pain issues and teach appropriate management techniques related to drug therapy

Dr. Walker completed a specialty residency in palliative care after completing her Doctor of Pharmacy schooling at Duquesne University. She has spoken at venues both national and regional on related topics.